Sandy's a hit again, this time on YouTube

Updated 12:48 am, Wednesday, November 14, 2012

It used to be that when serious storms pounded the shoreline, people evacuated or at least stayed inside.

But Superstorm Sandy, and to a lesser degree last year's Tropical Storm Irene, was well-documented by area residents using everything from cellphones to HD digital videocams. The quality of the videos on YouTube and Vimeo ranges from professional to downright goofy, with many people adopting the grave tones of an Edward R. Murrow "See It Now,'' news broadcast.

On Tuesday, a search for Hurricane Sandy or Superstorm Sandy has more than 170,000 videos -- 1,700 alone from Connecticut.

A YouTube user identified as Christine Aldieri shot video of the approaching storm from a window of her Bridgeport house, watching the wind carry a blue pail from her yard. She chases it down the street, while panicked dogs bark.

Brian Dennis used a Flip video camera to capture the scene in Stratford on Monday morning, Oct. 29. "I had to go outside to see what was shaking the house so bad,'' he said. "It's crazy out here; Lord help us all.''

Some of the amateur videos have popular songs for a soundtrack, but the most effective just have ambient noise: the wind howling like a banshee. The result is an unintentional "shaky cam'' that makes "The Blair Witch Project'' look like an Oscar contender. Nearly all of the videographers show a healthy respect for nature and marvel at the hurricane's fury.

A man identified as "drfirebird64'' on YouTube drives down East Broadway in Milford shortly after the mid-day high tide, parking in the fishermen's lot and walking out onto the sand. "I can't believe I'm doing this,'' he says on the video. "I never got this close, not even in (Hurricane) Gloria,'' Behind him, there is already debris on the beach, including what looks like planks from the boardwalk.

Brian Russell was a freshmen at Fairfield University when Gloria hit in 1985. He now owns houses at Fairfield Beach that he was renting to students before Sandy caused extensive damage. "I never remember the water getting into houses before,'' he said.

Russell, a professional videographer, documented the cleanup Sunday by more than 1,000 volunteers, interviewing among others, his tenant Rachel Greco. At the same time Greco, a senior, and her friends Daniel Bruno and Cate Martel were shooting footage for their documentary on the storm.

Bruno said she expects to get back into her second-floor apartment on Fairfield Beach Road before she graduates from Fairfield University. "It's not so much about my stuff, which wasn't affected, but when it will be safe to back in, with all the construction going on,'' she said.

The students' film is for Documentary Production class taught by Roxanna Walker-Canton. Greco is a film studies major. "We're going to focus on how Sandy altered the community,'' Greco said. "Everyone who was living at the beach is now staying with relatives or friends in the area, in dorm rooms or the houses of people they know who took them in.''